Millennial Travel: Combining Exploration and Personal Development (Part 2)

This is the second blog post covering my 2 and a half week solo trip to the United States in June exploring New York, Atlanta and Boston. It was a truly fantastic experience — I made the conscious effort to focus on listening to and meeting millennials living in the US to hear about their lives and daily experiences. I wanted to find out: Is the US still ‘Land of the Free’? Has the Trump presidency actually affected their daily lives? What does it feel like to study, live or work in the US?

Assuming you have read part 1 of this post then here is the second instalment!

In this blog post below, I highlight some of the places I went to combining personal development into my trip. Hopefully, this is an insightful post for fellow solo travellers as well as those planning their first trip.

There is so much more to travelling than taking nice photos! Tweet this

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Networking Events

After Day 1 of the Summit 21 Conference, I went to a networking event at a beautiful hotel in Atlanta to meet some of the conference attendees in a more intimate setting and chat about what we learnt.

Networking Event organised by EKO Event Group & Lemons to Lemonade
Talking books at the Networking Event organised by EKO Event Group & Lemons to Lemonade

Travel tip: I didn’t actually find networking in Atlanta hard or much different to the UK, maybe because my British accent helped me seem more interesting but I am also a seasoned attendee at networking events which are another great way to meet people on holiday. I searched Eventbrite at least once a week in the three month’s leading up to this trip and I don’t regret it! If you are shy about going to networking events read my blog on the benefits of them here.

I also went to another networking event held by Common Bond in NYC on ‘Making the Jump from Corporate to Startup’ and it was truly great to find out more about people’s experiences working in the city.

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Martin Luther King’s Birth House and Church in Atlanta

Whilst I was out in Atlanta I was also able to visit Martin Luther King’s birth house and church with my relatives. A truly touching experience!

Travel tip: Don’t forget about the history too! The house where MLK was born is literally in the middle of a residential street so take the time to search what is near you!

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Build Series NYC with One Young World —Another Live TV show in NYC

I found out about this event on Twitter a few weeks before heading off and I immediately signed up. It was a live broadcast held by One Young World, an NGO which provides a global forum for young leaders. This event focused on fashion, sustainability and volunteering. The guests included Robbie Myers, Editor-in-chief at Elle Magazine and Stylist Sarah Slutsky.

This event was great — such inspiring and refreshing conversation! They spoke about the importance of being stylish because ‘consumption is not always the answer’. Sarah mentioned about purchasing with intentionality and realising that when you purchase something you are making a statement with your dollar bill. Instead be a conscious consumer!

Sarah Slutsky said ‘When I buy clothes I ask myself does that align with my vision of where I want to be in 5/10 years’ time?’ and I love this! I also asked a question on live TV here about the importance of remaining creative!

If you want to watch the show you can do so here: — I’m at 40:08

Travel tip: I am interested in fashion but not obsessed so I was unsure about heading to this event but I was really glad I did in the end! A good lesson to venture outside your usual interests when travelling.

Some of the lovely ladies I met at the event!

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International Center of Photography (ICP) Museum, the MET in NYC & Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston

I visited a couple of museums during my trip and the ICP museum was probably my favourite. It had really beautiful photography and some interactive exhibitions you could sit on or listen to. The MET had their stunning Heavenly Bodies exhibition which I saw as part of Museum Mile (a night when loads of museums have extended opening hours and are free). I also loved the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston which is a decadent museum opened by the 20th-century American art collector and philanthropist, Isabella Stewart Gardner.

Heavenly Bodies Exhibition at The Met

To make museum experiences more engaging I take a notebook with me to write down words that come to my head as I am viewing a painting or picture. This helps me engage with the art and sometimes I may stop to sketch what I see too. Like below. Don’t judge my artistic skills…

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Travel tip: Museums are great but how can you engage more with them when you go? Also, try and go to some of the more obscure ones, not just the big names.


That is the end of part 2 of ‘Millennial Travel: Combining Exploration and Personal Development’.

To summarise the travel tips:

  • Using Eventbrite to find networking events in your destination (likely to be much easier in some cities than others)

Hope you found that useful. I would love to know what you get up to when travelling — let me know on Twitter here.

See you next time for the finale, Part 3.

A Millennial’s Diary

Written by

Blog covering all things personal development and careers from a 20-something millennial making her way in the Management Consulting industry

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